Controller.



No. 764,402. PATBNTED JULY 5, 1904.5

E. B. WHARTON.

CONTROLLER.

' APPLICATION rum) NOV.13, 1903.

NO MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

No. 764,402. PATENTED JULY 5, 1904. B. B. WHARTON. CONTROLLER.

, APPLICATION FILED NOV. 13, 1903.

N0 MODEL. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

1K4 as 34 1V1! 1 H: H V V 7- 7 1 l W p3 ZZZ 1m him W No. 764,402. v PATENTED JULY 5, 1904. E. B. W'HARTON.

CONTROLLER.

ARPLIOATIOH FILED NOV. 13, 1903.

N0 MODEL. 8 SHEETS-SHEET 8.

K hwzntob m no UNITED STATES Patented July 5, 1904.

PATENT OEEicE.

ELMER BERT VVHARTON, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE CASE MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF COLUMBUS, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

CONTROLLER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 764,402, dated July 5, 1904..

Application filed November 13, 1903. Serial No. 181,066. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELMER BERT VVHARTON, a citizen of the United States,'residing at C- lumbus, in the county of Franklin, State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Controllers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to controllers for electric motors. 'It is designed more especially for controlling the movements of the winding-drums of electric cranes, but is also ad'- vantageously applicable to all of the independent motors employed for effecting the various movements of electric cranes-such, for instance, as that described in Letters Patent No. 7 17 ,99 1, of January 6, 1903.

Heretofore electric-crane motors have not given the accuracy of movement that is needed and the controlling devices have been subject to numerous disadvantages, such as areing at contact-points, too sudden change of speed, &c.

The object of my invention is to provide simple and effective means by which the operator may vary the speed of-each motor independently of the others and with greater accuracy than heretofore.

My invention also provides a contact device which reduces arcing to a minimum, and a hand-lever for operating the contact-arms with great precision.

These and other improvements, such as an improved system of wiring to be used in connection with my improved controller, will be clearly set forth by the following specification and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of my improved controller with auxiliary switch for shunting part of the circuit around the armature. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectionof the same on the line 2 2, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on the line 3 3, Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 4 is a detail view of one of the yielding terminals. Fig. 5 is a detail View of one of the similarly-constructed contact-brushes employed for making connection with the segmental contact-plates.

, Fig. 6 is a detail view of the auxiliary switch for shunting a portion of the current around the armature. Fig. 7 is a schematic view of the. system in which the controller may be used.

Referring now to the drawings, 1 represents a base-plate or mounting for the controller, and 2 a switch-arm pivoted to said base-plate by a bolt 3. Switch-arm 2 is formed of a conducting material. In order to move switcharm 2 through an arc suificiently large to accomplish all its functions without requiring an inconvenient length of throw in the operating-handle, said arm is operated by a handlever A, pivoted at 4* between its ends to a bracket 5 on base-plate 1 and having sliding pivotal connection at its lower end with said switch-arm. In this way movement in the hand-lever is multiplied in the switch-arm, the pivot 6 sliding in a guideway 7 in the switch-arm to compensate for the difference in the respective arcs in which the connected parts move. The upper end of hand-lever A is provided with a handle 8, carrying a device for locking said lever to the segmentbar 9 for holding switch-bar 2 in its adjusted and off positions.

The upper end of switch-arm 2 carries a brush 10, sliding upon either of the outer contact-plates 11, according to the direction in which the switch-arm is swung, while the lower portion of said arm carries brush 12, sliding upon inner contact 13, and brush 14C, sliding upon that one of the outer contacts 11 which is opposite the one upon which brush 10 is sliding. Outer contacts 11 are connected by jumper-wires 11*. These brushes 10, 12, and 1A are of novel construction. They are substantially alike in construction and will be understood upon reference to Fig. 5, wherein 15 represents an attaching-plate to be secured by screws to the switch-arm, and 16 represents spring-fingers projecting from the attaching-plate bent upon themselves and carrying rubbing-shoes 17 on their free ends. Setscrews 18, having jam-nuts, are threaded in the attaching-plate and press against the under portion of the respective springs to provide for increasing the rubbing of the shoes upon the contact-plate over which the brush is to travel. -A binding-post 19 on each brush adapts it to be connected with an adjacent brush without passing the current through the switch-arm.

At the lower end'of switch-arm 2 is pivoted a copper disk 19, which is capable of a rotary movement. Contact-brush has electrical connection with brush 12, and contactbrush 14 has electrical connection with copper disk 19. Brush 14 and disk 19 are insulated from brushes 10 and 12. When switcharm 2 is operated by hand-lever 4, copper disk 19 slidesbetween the pairs of blades 20 of the successive resistance-terminals 21 22 on the oneside or the other of the off position, and said disk by virtue of its pivotal mounting forms a nearly perfect connection with said blades. Terminals 22 are supported in the path of disk 19 by brackets 23 on base-plate 1. Terminals 21 are mounted in a novel manner to be hereinafter referred to. Each of the terminals 21 and 22 is connected with a certain one of aseries of connected resistance-coils, so that by moving disk19 into successive engagement with the terminals 21 and 22 the resistance is successively reduced or increased to regulate-the speed of the motor governed by the controller.

Another feature of my invention relates to means for reducing to a minimum the arcing which occurs when circuits are made and broken. This is accomplished in part bythe novel construction of the first terminals 21 and in part by a novel construction of electromagnetic blow-out. Terminals 21 are adapted by virtue of their pivotal mounting at 24 to hold onto the copper disk 19 and move inwardly with it against the action of spring 25, which is operatively connected to it. hen the contact releases itself, the tension of spring 25 has become sufficiently high to cause contact 21 to return with a snap and greatly reduce the sparking. The little sparking that takes place is neutralized in its effect by the electromagnetic blow-out 26 at the lower end of contact-arm 2. The construction of these parts can be bestunderstood from Figs. 2 and 4, wherein 27 represents brackets providing the pivots 24 for the bell-crank levers 28, upon which blades 21 are mounted and having arms 29, affording a fixed attachment for ometuz piece 34 on the other side of disk 19. The core thus becomes the means of mounting both the blow-out and disk upon arm 2.

In order to vary proportionally the amount of current flowing through field and armature in one of the motors, so that the operator may obtain more perfect control over said motor, an auxiliary-switch lever 35, preferably a footlever, (see Fig. 1,) is provided, which is operatively connected through link 36 with one end of a lever 37 Lever 37 is fulcrumed on a post 38 on base-plate 1 by means of the boss 39 on the lever and has a coil-spring 4O surrounding said boss to hold the lever in normal position. Lever 37 carries a brush 41, preferably like that shown in Fig. 5, so connected as to shunt a part of the current through contact-plates 84 and 85 when the foot-lever is depressed. A metal plate 43, formed integral with post 38, has a recess in which lever 37 works to limit the downward movement of lever 37. In order to make it impossible to operate this auxiliary switch when the circuit is being closed through the main controllerswitch, a plate or bar 44, having a flange 45, is rigidly mounted upon lever 37, which flange is adapted to enter a recess 46 in a flange 47 on the back of hand-lever 4 when the latter is in off position; but when hand-lever 4 is out of its off position and the recess 46 is out of alinement with the flange 45 the latter will abut against flange 47 and prevent the operation of the auxiliary switch.

The electric connections between the various parts of my improved controller may best be understood by reference to Fig. 7 of the drawings. Current is supplied by line-wires 48 and is distributed by switch board 49 through fuses 50 to the parallel circuits at, b, and 0. Circuit a connects with controller A, circuit 5 with controller B, and circuit 0 connects with controller C. Controllers A, B, and C govern, respectively, motors X, Y, and Z. Current enters circuit 0 by, say, wire 51, passes through binding-post 52, along wire 53, and into inner contact-plate 13, thence by lingers 17 through wire 90. and.out by the outer contact-plate 11. From there it passes along wire 54 to binding-post 55 and along wire 56 to 57. It then passes through field 58, energizing the magnet, and comes out at 59 and passes along wire 60 to binding-post 61. From there it returns through wire'62 to the other outer plate 11. From 11 it is conducted by fingers 17, electrically connected with copper disk 19, and from disk 19 to resistance-boxes 63 by terminals 21 or 22, thence along wire 64 to binding post 65, through wire 66 to binding-post 67, into the armature at brush 68, andout by brush 69. It then passes along wire 70 to binding-post 71, across connection 72 to binding-post 73, and returns to the line wire 74.

In the circuit which operates the hoist-motor it is found desirable to introduce a limitswitch, which will be automatically operated to break the circuit when the winding-drum reaches the limit of its movement. For this purpose the current on its way to the armature of motor X through wire is led through the contacts 7 6, 7 7 and 78. As shown in the drawings, contact-piece 77 is mountedupon the rod 7 9, and when a current passes through 80 contact-piece 77 will be attracted by the electromagnet set up, and thus the circuit be broken.

81 and 82 are contacts which are operated by the winding-drum when it is all unwound or wound up and close the circuit which operates the electromagnet 80.

In order to supply current to the magnetic cut-out coil 80, a shunt-circuit leaves the main at plate 11, passes along wire 105 to coil 80, and when contact 81 is connected with contact 82 (by the winding-drum having reached the limit of its movement) the current passes through the wire 106 (having energized the magnet) to contacts 81 and 82 and then through wire 107 and back into the main circuit at the point 108, past which current is flowing from the negative brush of the motor X on its way to the negative line-wire. hen the shunting-lever is in operative position, the circuit is as follows: Current after leaving the field goes through the other of the outer contactplates 11 and through copper disk to resistance-terminals. When it reaches the resistance-coil, if contacts and 8 1 are closed it divides. The shunt-circuit leaves the main circuit at this point by the shunt-coil, and shunted current passes up along wire 110 to terminals 84 and 85,down by wirelll until it again enters the main circuit at terminal 65, where it unites with the main current, which is at this point leaving the armature on its way to the negative line-wire by wire 72. The main current passes through armature as described before. It is therefore obvious that the shunt resistance affects only the field and also that every block of resistance taken out of the main series resistance is added to the shunt resistance, thus varying proportionally the amounts of current flowing through field and armature. The graphite stick normally forces the shunt-current to keep to its proper path; but in the event of too great a current passing through the system it takes up the abnormal amount.

Having thus described my invention, the following is what I claim as new therein:

1. In a controller, the combination of a suitable support having mounted thereon contactplates, and knifeeswitch contacts,one of which knife-switch contacts being provided with a quick circuit-breaking device, and a switcharm provided with contact-fingers, .for connecting with said contact-plates, and a diskcontact adapted to engage between the blades of said knife-switch contacts.

2. In a controller, the combination with a 3. In a controller, the combination with a pivotally-mounted switch-arm carrying series of contact-fingers and a rotary contact, of suitably-mounted contact-plates connecting with said contact-fingers,and a series of knifeswitch contacts each connected with a resistance-box and. adapted to receive said pivotallymounted disk-contact between their blades,one of said knife-switch contacts being pivotally mounted and provided with a quick-break device.

4:. In a controller,a resistance-terminal contact device consisting of a series of knifeswitch contacts, adapted to receive a pivotallymounted diskcontact,one of said knife-switch contacts being pivotally mounted and opertively connected with a spring which causes a sudden breaking of the circuit to reduce the arcing.

5. In a controller,a resistance-terminal connection consisting of a series of knife-switch contacts, a rotary contact adapted to rotate between the two blades of the knife-switch, and a quick-break arrangement on one of the knife-switch contacts, by which the knifeswitch contact follows the annular contact against the tension of a spring until a stop jerks it free.

6. In a controller, a series of knife-switch contacts, a wheel-contact adapted to rotate between the lips of said knife-switch contacts, and a magnet blow-out or spark-arrester therefor, one of the knife-switch contacts being pivotally mounted and operatively connected with a spring.

7. In acontroller, aresistance-terminal connection consisting of a series of knife-switch contacts, a pivotally-mounted annular contact adapted to rotate between the blades of said knife-switch contacts, and a magnetic sparkarrester, or blow-outf one of said knifeswitch contacts being provided with a quickbreak device.

8. In a controller,the combination with suitable contacts, switch-arm, and operating-lever therefor, of a circuit suitably connected to said contacts and switch-arm for supplying an electric current, and a device for shunting a part of the current adapted to be operated when switch-arm is in 0H position.

9. In a controller,the combination with suitable contacts, switch-arm, and operating-lever therefor, of a circuit suitably connected to said contacts and switch-arm for supplying an electrio current, and a device for shunting a part of the current inoperative when switch-arm is out of off position.

10. In a controller, the combination With suitable contacts, switch-arm, and operating- I lever therefor, of a circuit suitably connected coils, an operating-lever for said switch-arm, and means for supplying current thereto, of a device for introducing a shunt into the circuit and a device rendering said shunt device inoperative when the switch-arm is out of off position.

13. In a controller, the combination With suitable contacts, a switch-arm, and circuit for supplying current to same, of means for shunting a part of said current, said means being operative only When the switch-arm is in off position, and an automatically-operated limitsWitch, by Which the main circuit is opened.

The foregoing specification signed this 5th day of November, 1903.

ELMER BERT WHARTON.

In presence of Z. D. ALLISON, S. G. SMITH. 

